Leadership Series: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

A series of bribery scandals dominated the news from Albany this year, but the legislative session ended without movement on the reform package proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

We asked New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman what he can do to clean up the state capital and how to keep New York’s elections fair in the future at our intimate luncheon.

Eric T. Schneiderman was elected the 65th Attorney General of New York State on November 2, 2010. He served until his resignation in 2018.

Schneiderman previously spent 15 years in private practice as an attorney, and later as a partner, at the firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. He was also a public interest lawyer for many years, and his clients included taxpayers in historic lawsuits against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, tenants trying to evict drug dealers from their buildings, and women seeking access to health clinics.

---

Interested in attending future events?

NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: John Catsimatidis

With the support of former Gov. George Pataki, John Catsimatidis battled Joe Lhota for a spot atop the Republican ticket. The Common Good was proud to present an evening reception with Catsimatidis as part of our NYC Mayoral Candidate Series.

John Catsimatidis was born on the Greek Island of Nisyros in 1948, and 6 months later his parents emigrated to New York City. He was educated in both the parochial and public school systems earning his high school diploma from Brooklyn Tech. Catsimatidis enrolled in New York University to study electrical engineering; going to school during the day and working in a small grocery store on nights and weekends to help his parents pay the bills. He dropped out of school to work full time. By his 25th birthday he already had 10 Red Apple Supermarkets. Four decades later the Red Apple Group has evolved into a diversified corporation that has holdings in the energy, aviation, retail and real estate sectors and over 8,000 employees.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Foreign Affairs Series: Syria update with Ribal al-Assad

Fighting has ravaged Syria for more than two years, as opposition forces and President Bashar al-Assad fight for control.

The Common Good was proud to host a very special luncheon with a man who has connections to both sides in Syria. Ribal al-Assad is an outspoken supporter of the opposition movement and an exiled cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ribal Al-Assad is the founder and director of the Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria, which promotes democracy, freedom and human rights in Syria and the Middle East. He was born in Syria and has lived in the West since being exiled from his country as a child. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the InterAmerican University in New York and an MA in International Relations from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. Currently living in London, he is married and has a baby son.

---

Interested in attending future events?

NYC Mayoral Candidate Series: Anthony Weiner on health care policy

The Common Good hosted former Rep. Anthony Weiner for an edition of our NYC Mayoral Candidate Series. The former Congressman delivered a health care policy speech exclusively for members of The Common Good and then answered questions from our engaged audience. Mr. Weiner outlined a health care plan that aims to lower costs, improve quality, and expand coverage for all New Yorkers.

In addition to the packed house at City University’s Macaulay Honors College, the event received a lot of coverage in the New York media:

The New York Times featured at story titled, “Weiner Wants City to Test Single-Payer Health Care.” Nina Bernstein wrote:

His talk, at a public lecture series sponsored by The Common Good, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, at a City University of New York branch on West 67th Street, stirred enthusiasm and interest. In the hour before he spoke, word of Mr. Weiner’s proposal galvanized other Democratic candidates for mayor to issue hurried news releases on health care.

“Weiner’s first ‘Big Thought’: Single-payer for the city“ was the headline in Politico (formerly Capital New York). Reid Pillifant wrote:

Anthony Weiner proposed an ambitious single-payer health care system for New York City on Thursday afternoon, in a policy speech his campaign billed as “Big Thought Thursday.”

“We should make New York City the single-payer laboratory for the rest of the country,” said Weiner, in a speech at the CUNY Macaulay Honors College, hosted by the nonprofit group The Common Good.

We also saw write-ups by some other outlets:

• The Daily News: Anthony Weiner rolls out new health care plan

• The Observer: Anthony Weiner Gets Professorial on ‘Big Thought Thursday’

• New York Magazine: Weiner Proposes Weinercare for Big Apple

Anthony D. Weiner was a member of Congress from 1998 to 2011, representing a district that includes neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Democracy Series: ‘Fighting for the Press’ with James Goodale

Congressional hearings have produced headlines and raised hackles over whether the Justice Department has misused its powers in going after The Associated Press and a Fox News reporter’s telephone records. We were privileged to host James Goodale, famed First Amendment attorney and author, to discuss his extremely timely and best-selling book Fighting for the Press: The Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles.

Where does freedom of the press supersede national security? Is the current administration too aggressive in shutting down leakers and potential whistle-blowers? Should there be new legislation to protect the press trying to report on the government? As the government also looks to prosecute Julian Assange for the largest series of leaks in the nation’s history, these questions will become even more important and pressing.

“An engaging work which underlines the importance of fighting for a free press. Without press freedom, informed public debate is curtailed and democratic accountability diminished. ”

— Kofi Annan

“The most detailed and honest inside account yet of the successful judicial fight to publish the Pentagon Papers by the uncompromising lawyer in the middle of it. Goodale and his colleagues won the right to tell the American people that their government – and their President – had lied, manipulated and cheated their way into a disastrous war … while the war was still being waged. This history could not come at a more important time.”

— Seymour M. Hersh

“James Goodale is an American treasure and so is Fighting for the Press. This is a story worthy of John Grisham, except this one actually happened; it is fact, not fiction – and it’s still unfolding. ”

— Dan Rather

James C. Goodale is a leading First Amendment lawyer with Debevoise & Plimpton. He has represented The New York Times in every one of its cases to go to the Supreme Court. These were the Pentagon Papers case (The New York Times Co. v. The U.S.), The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (libel), Branzburg v. Hayes and The New York Times Co. v. Tasini (digital rights).

---

Interested in attending future events?

National Security Briefing with Thomas Pickering

The Common Good hosted a national security and foreign affairs briefing from former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Thomas Pickering.

Ambassador Pickering served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from May of 1997 until late 2000. Prior to that, he served briefly as the president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union. Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger from 1973 to 1974. (1)

---

Interested in attending future events?

---

(1) Material from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy website.

Middle East Update with Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former adviser to two Presidents, joined The Common Good as part of our Middle East Series for a luncheon briefing on security concerns in the region, the Arab “Autumn,” and updates on Syria, Israel, Egypt and Pakistan.

Elliott Abrams is the Special Representative for Venezuela at the Department of State. He was senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC, from which he is now on a leave of absence. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. (1)

---

Interested in attending future events?

---

(1) Material from the U.S. Department of State website.

Assessing the Presidency with Lesley Stahl, Douglas Brinkley, Jonathan Alter and Ed Rollins

President Obama clearly has a place in history for breaking through the race barrier, but how will the rest of his presidency be remembered?

The Common Good hosted a discussion comparing the current President and his accomplishments with other Presidents in modern history.

Moderated by the distinguished investigative journalist Lesley Stahl, the panel featured leading GOP campaign strategist Ed Rollins, esteemed historian Douglas Brinkley and award-winning author Jonathan Alter.

Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D., is a fellow in history at the Baker Institute and a professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley’s most recent publications include The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (2009); The Reagan Diaries (2007), which he edited; and the New York Times best-seller The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006), which was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Edward Rollins is Chairman of the Rollins Strategy Group, a communications and crisis management firm with offices in New York and Washington, D.C. He has long been considered one of America’s premier political strategists and communication experts, specializing in issue, image and crisis campaigns on behalf of corporations, governments, and political candidates around the world.

Edward Rollins has served four United States Presidents, including two tours of duty at the White House as Assistant to the President. He was in charge of both the White House Office of Political Affairs and the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as well as serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, reporter, columnist and television analyst. Since 2011, Alter has written a column for Bloomberg View, a worldwide commentary site housed under Bloomberg News. He spent 28 years at Newsweek, where he was a longtime senior editor and columnist and wrote more than 50 cover stories. He has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Republic and other publications. Since 1996, Alter has been an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC.

The 2012 campaign marks the eighth presidential election Alter has covered. He has frequently interviewed American presidents and other world leaders and regularly breaks news. His Newsweek cover stories over the years included everything from Bill Clinton’s first interview after leaving the presidency to Barack Obama’s first-ever magazine cover.

One of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since March 1991. Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan presidencies and part of the term of George H. W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on the CBS Evening News, first with Walter Cronkite, then with Dan Rather, and on other CBS News broadcasts. Her experiences covering Washington for more than 20 years became the subject of her book Reporting Live (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The stories she has covered since joining CBS News in the Washington bureau in 1972 range from Watergate through the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan to the 1991 Gulf War.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Briefing on Turkey with Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç

The Common Good held an authoritative briefing on Turkey as part of our Foreign Affairs/National Security Series with Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç, Member of the Turkish Parliament.

Dr. Yusuf Ziya İrbeç was born in Kas, Antalya in 1959. He was an economist, foreign policy specialist and academician. He served as a Member of the Turkish Parliament for Antalya since 2007 and an Executive Board Member of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), in which he was the Deputy Convener of Peace and Democracy Program. He also served in the Turkish Parliament as Member, Clerk Member and Vice-Chairman of the European Union Harmonization Commission, and as a Member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the European Union.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Women in the Military: US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and others

The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel held a hearing March 13th to investigate sexual assault in the military. This issue was among the many important topics that were discussed at a very special lunch on “Women in the Military”, hosted by The Common Good, dedicated to the advancement of our women who serve.

The special expert lunch panel included:

• Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

• Anu Bhagwati (Executive Director of SWAN)

• Molly O’Toole (News Editor, The Huffington Post)

• Brenda S. Fulton (Board Member, OutServe-SLDN)

• Krystal Ball (MSNBC contributor)

Jeanne Shaheen is the first woman in history to be elected a Governor and a United States Senator. She became the first woman elected Governor of New Hampshire, serving three terms from 1997-2003. In 2008 Shaheen became the first woman elected to the United States Senate from New Hampshire. She chairs the Committee on Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee on European Affairs, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and Power. Shaheen is also a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Anu Bhagwati is SWAN’s first Executive Director. A former Captain and Company Commander, Anu served as a Marine officer from 1999-2004. Under Anu’s leadership, SWAN has spearheaded legislative reform and litigation to end military rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence, and to eliminate all barriers to equal opportunity for service women. Bhagwati has testified before Congress, advised the White House and the United Nations, and has spoken to countless audiences on challenges faced by military women, including the Combat Exclusion policy, Military Sexual Trauma, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and the VA health care and benefits system. A regular contributor to the media, Bhagwati has been featured on Piers Morgan Tonight, the CNN Situation Room, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time and Newsweek.

Molly O’Toole previously worked as a reporter for Reuters in Washington, D.C. She has written for the Associated Press, The New York Times online, Newsweek, USA Today and The Nation, among others. She graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a B.A. in English and earned a dual M.A. in journalism and international relations at New York University.

Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton is a Board member of OutServe-SLDN, the national organization supporting LGBT members of the Armed Forces. A Florida native, Fulton graduated West Point in 1980, part of the first class to include women, and was commissioned in the Army. She served as a platoon leader, staff officer, and company commander in Germany, and was honorably discharged as a Captain.

In 2009, she co-founded Knights Out, an organization of LGBT West Point graduates and allies, and later helped Josh Seefried and Ty Walrod launch OutServe, the association of actively-serving LGBT military personnel. She served both organizations as Communications Director and later became Executive Director of Knights Out. A key player in the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Fulton was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors in 2011 – the first openly gay member of the Board.

---

Interested in attending future event?

Astronaut Mark Kelly “Reducing Gun Violence Responsibly”

The Common Good hosted a special luncheon event with astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who was seriously wounded in a gun attack two years ago in Arizona.

Mark discussed gun safety and gun violence and “Americans for Responsible Solutions”, which seeks to “prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership.”

Mark Kelly, husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is a retired astronaut and US Navy Captain with 6,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft, 375 aircraft carrier landings, 39 combat missions and more than 50 days in space. As a Naval Aviator, Kelly flew combat missions during the Gulf War. He received initial training on the A-6E Intruder attack aircraft. He was then assigned to Attack Squadron 115 (VA-115) in Atsugi, Japan, and made two deployments to the Persian Gulf on the aircraft carrier USS Midway, flying 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Alan Blinder: The Economic Crisis and Response

Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve board, joined The Common Good for a special luncheon to discuss how our economy collapsed, how our government responded, and what needs to be done to get us back on track.

With his new book, After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, The Response, and the Work Ahead, Blinder shows us how the U.S. financial system, which had grown far too complex for its own good—and too unregulated for the public good—experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. Things started unraveling when the much-chronicled housing bubble burst, but the ensuing implosion of what Blinder calls the “bond bubble” was larger and more devastating. When America’s financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. Some observers argue that large global forces were the major culprits of the crisis. Blinder disagrees, arguing that the problem started in the U.S. and was pushed abroad, as complex, opaque, and overrated investment products were exported to a hungry world, which was nearly poisoned by them. The second part of the story explains how American and international government intervention kept us from a total meltdown, preventing the worst from happening.

Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.

“If you want to understand every aspect of our economic crisis—how we got into it, how we escaped a depression, why we haven’t fully recovered, and what we have to do now—read this book. It’s a masterpiece—simple, straightforward and wise.”

— President William J. Clinton

“The best comprehensive history of the financial crisis so far makes the case for the US government response”

— John McDermott, FT( Excerpt)

“True to his scholarly roots and informed by his practical insights, Alan Blinder has produced in After the Music Stopped both a comprehensive and, mirabile dictu, engagingly readable analysis of the great financial crisis. Whether or not one agrees with every particular judgment, the force of the argument is clear: here we are, four years later, still short of reforms that are needed.”

— Paul A. Volcker

Alan S. Blinder has been on the Princeton faculty since 1971, taking time off from January 1993 through January 1996 for service in the U.S. government—first as a member of President Clinton’s original Council of Economic Advisers, and then as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

In addition to his academic writings and his best-selling introductory textbook, he has written many op-eds and columns, and, in recent years, has been a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Blinder has appeared frequently on television, including on PBS, CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg. He is a Distinguished Fellow and past vice president of the American Economic Association, a past president of the Eastern Economic Association, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Special Screening: “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”

The MoMa, REACT to FILM and The Common Good presented a screening of the Academy Award short-listed documentary Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry.

Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry is the inside story of a political dissident who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics. The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Alison Klayman.

Ai Weiwei is China’s most famous international artist and its most outspoken domestic critic. Against a backdrop of strict censorship and an unresponsive legal system, Weiwei expresses himself and organizes people through art and social media. In response, Chinese authorities have shut down his blog, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention.

First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to Weiwei while working as a journalist in China. Her detailed portrait provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist. His activity as a dissident has gone hand in hand with his artistic career and he has continued to produce work testifying to his political beliefs while at the same time making plenty of room for creativity and experimentation. (1)

After returning to China from his studies abroad, Ai contributed to the establishment of Beijing’s East Village, a community of avant-garde artists. In 1997, he co-founded the China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), one of the first independent art spaces in China. In 2003, Ai started his own architecture practice, FAKE Design. In 2007, as a participant of documenta 12, Ai brought 1001 Chinese citizens to Kassel as part of his Fairytale project. In 2008, Ai and the Swiss architecture team of Herzog and de Meuron designed the Beijing National Stadium. Recently, Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow participed in the 74th Venice International Film Festival. (1)

---

Interested in attending future events?

---

(1) Material from the Galleria Continua website.

Special Screening of “ETHEL” at MOMA

The Common Good was proud to present a special screening of the extraordinary film ETHEL, which deals with the life and work of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and, as the film proves, a force in her own right. The screening was followed by an informal conversation with the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy and others.

“Rory Kennedy’s affectionate and revealing documentary about her mother, Ethel Kennedy.”

— San Francisco Chronicle

“Ethel – Rory Kennedy’s “lively and very loving tribute to her mother.”

— Boston Globe

“Ethel is a loving, touching and sometimes mischievous tribute to Ethel Kennedy, 84, by her youngest daughter, Rory Kennedy, a filmmaker. It is presented as a “private look inside a highly public life.”

— New York Times

---

Interested in attending future events?

Senator Alan Simpson “The Fiscal Cliff: Go Big or Go Home”

Former Republican Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the Simpson-Bowles plan and a key figure in the budget reform debate, spoke to members of The Common Good. 

The plain spoken former senator provided an intimate briefing on the impending “fiscal cliff” and prospects for a bipartisan solution to these problems. With debate on the impending “fiscal cliff” dominating Washington and the national news-cycle, it was a great opportunity to hear the ultimate insider’s view on how or whether our political parties find common ground before the US goes over the “fiscal cliff” at the end of this year.

Alan Simpson served as a Senator from Wyoming from 1979 to 1997. He was a conservative and an opponent of government regulation, as well as an outspoken advocate for access to abortion, gay and lesbian rights, and equality for all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. He was Republican whip from 1985 to 1995 and chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee from 1981 to 1987 and from 1995 to 1997. During his tenure, Simpson also chaired the Immigration and Refugee Subcommittee of Judiciary, the Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee, the Social Security Subcommittee and the Committee on Aging.

---

Interested in attending future events?

Neil Barofsky on the “Broken Promises” of the Bank Bailouts

The Common Good hosted former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky for a candid discussion of the bank bailout and aftermath and why citizens should not only feel shortchanged about what was supposed to be done with the billions spent on TARP, but the system vulnerabilities that still remain.

Neil Barofsky, in his new book, Bailout, writes that the American people “should be enraged by the broken promises to Main Street and the unending protection of Wall Street.”

From December 2008 to March 2011, Barofsky, a formal federal prosecutor and lifelong Democrat, served as special inspector general of TARP, charged with protecting against abuse and fraud in the program.

According to Barofsky, TARP did meet one of its primary objectives, which was to help prevent the entire collapse of our financial system.  The other goals, which have more of a focus on helping Main Street institutions and individuals and businesses definitely small enough to fail — those goals all came up short.

TARP was supposed to be used by the banks to restore lending to individuals and businesses to  pump that oxygen into the lifeblood of the economy, and it just didn’t happen.  TARP was also supposed to help homeowners, with an original goal of helping  up to 4 million homeowners, but today only around 800,000 homeowners have been helped— 20 percent of that goal.

---

Interested in attending future events?

The Common Good Trip to Cuba

We are thrilled that we offered our first trip with The Common Good,  we traveled to Cuba with travel experts.  The trip included visits to the Bay of Pigs, Hemingway’s home, cultural, political and economic highlights in Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad and other important places of interest.

On October 28, 2011, Californians Building Bridges (CBB) was granted a license by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, License # CT-18210, to travel and engage in travel-related transactions directly related to educational exchange activities that will result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in Cuba.  CBB was founded on the principle of joining together communities and providing greater opportunities to those who are economically deprived by emerging cultures, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds.  Attendees traveled under this license during your trip and participated in a full-time schedule of educational activities.

CBB scheduled daily activities that gave insight into the local customs, history, and politics that shape the lives of the Cuban people.  These activities included language lessons, salsa classes, guest speakers, and field trips to local areas of interest, such as Hemmingway’s home.  The group had an opportunity to visit a cigar factory, the Rum and Fine Arts Museums, local artist’s homes, and the Tropicana Cabaret.

Trip includes the following and more: 

• Coordination of full-time daily program and volunteer activities

• 6 nights of accommodation in a 5-star Hotel

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

• Visit to cigar factory, Rum Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Morro Castle, and Tropicana Cabaret

• Transportation by luxury air-conditioned motor coach and local guide.

• Round-trip air transportation from Miami to Havana

• Pre-departure briefing

• Gratuities to local guides and driver

• Travel license, visa and health insurance

Not Included:

• Passport

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance

• Checked baggage fees and airport taxes

• Transportation between New York and Miami

---

Interested in attending future events?

Power Lunch with Grover Norquist

The Common Good was fortunate enough to host Grover Norquist for a live talk about politics, government spending, fiscal conservatism, and, of course, taxes and tax reform.

Grover Norquist may be one of the most powerful non-elected people in the country. He is President of Americans for Tax Reform, leader of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and one of the most effective issues management strategists in Washington for three decades.

Mr. Norquist has been called both “the most innovative, creative, courageous and entrepreneurial leader of the anti-tax efforts and of conservative grassroots activism in America” and “The dark wizard of the Right’s anti-tax cult.”

---

Interested in attending future events?

Nobel Prize Economist Paul Krugman on Reigniting the Economy

The Common Good held a discussion with Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, as he spoke about how to get the U.S. out of economic stagnation, austerity versus growth and topics from his recent book “End this Depression Now“.

The Great Recession is more than four years old—and counting. Yet, as Paul Krugman points out in this powerful volley, “Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge—all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all—remain in a state of intense pain.” How bad have things gotten? How did we get stuck in what now can only be called a depression? And above all, how do we free ourselves? Krugman pursues these questions with his characteristic lucidity and insight. He has a powerful message for anyone who has suffered over these past four years—a quick, strong recovery is just one step away, if our leaders can find the “intellectual clarity and political will” to end this depression now.

Paul Krugman is the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is a best-selling author, columnist, and blogger for the New York Times, and is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. Mr. Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. At MIT he became the Ford International Professor of Economics. Mr. Krugman is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes. His professional reputation rests largely on work in international trade and finance; he is one of the founders of the “new trade theory,” a major rethinking of the theory of international trade. In recognition of that work, in 1991 the American Economic Association awarded him its John Bates Clark medal, a prize given every two years to “that economist under forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic knowledge.” Mr. Krugman’s current academic research is focused on economic and currency crises. At the same time, Mr. Krugman has written extensively for a broader public audience. Some of his recent articles on economic issues, originally published in Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American and other journals, are reprinted in Pop Internationalism and The Accidental Theorist.

---

Interested in attending future events?

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

The Common Good was pleased to host House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who spoke on a range of topics from current developments in the Middle East to tackling the fiscal cliff, economic recovery, deficit reduction and how to cure the political dysfunction in Washington.

Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. From 2007 to 2011, she served as the first woman Speaker of the House and is also the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in Congress, having served as House Democratic leader from 2003 to 2007. Leader Pelosi has represented San Francisco, California’s Eighth District, for 25 years.

---

Interested in attending future events?